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Personal Information
Name: Blu
Age: 26
Personal Journal: DW: Blu667 , LJ: BluFireDragon67
AIM: BluFireDragon667
Plurk: Blu667
Current Character(s): None
Character Information
Character Name: The Spine (Walter)
Fandom: Steam Powered Giraffe
Character History:
Peter A. Walter began creating his automatons in order to woo a fellow Cavalcadium scientist by the name of Delilah Moreau. His first failed attempt to woo her was with a 136-foot steam powered giraffe; a direct retaliation of his competitor, Thadeus Becile's, copper elephant. But, with it marked his invention of blue-matter which was then used in all of Walter's automatons. A little birdy had told him of her love for music, and what better to sing her sweet melodies than a band of artificial intelligence. Walter immediately began creating a robotic band that would sing and write their own music. In his efforts, however, he did not notice that his beloved was ill and died a short time after.
In his grief, Walter threw himself into his work, experimenting with the blue-matter. Eventually one of his late-night experiments opened a rift to another dimension inside the manor, and with it, brought new seemingly organic life to his automatons. Their humanoid intelligence and mannerisms quickly became legend, and Walter a renewed success.
In 1896, The Spine was created with the rest of his robot brothers and sisters; The Jon, Rabbit, Malfunction, and Hatchworth. His original make up gave him a spinal column made of locomotive-styled smokestacks and thus gave him his name.
Thadeus Becile was not to be outdone, however, and launched his army of elephants on an attack of a green rock candy mine in Africa in order to obtain more Green Matter for his own creations. After much begging and coercing from several sources, Walter outfitted his singing robots with any weapons he could get his hands on. Along with the new death-dealing weapons, he reluctantly gave them the knowledge to use them. The war against Becile's copper elephants lasted for three days, with Walter's automatons the victors.
With Becile in prison and his creations safely in pieces, Walter spent the rest of his life attempting to make his automatons forget about the atrocities of the war. Their first performance was in San Diego, California at the First World's Fair in 1915, where they performed under the name of "P. A. Walter's Steam Man Band". They continued to play for delighting audiences until their country called for them again.
After Peter Walter the 1st died, Walters after him had made deals with the American Government to draft the automatons in their wars to help fund the family's diminishing fortune. Due to this, they were involved in World War I, II, and the war of Vietnam.
The Spine's first upgrade was in 1955, when the United States government spent millions of dollars outfitting him with highly classified weapons and the titanium alloy spinal column he still has today. Along with his hardware upgrades The Spine was also reprogrammed and redesigned to be more human. With it being more difficult to pick him out from the rest of the flesh-and-blood troops, he could better perform the special ops missions he was now programed to do. It also saved countless lives.
The upgrades served him well until the automatons were deployed to Vietnam in 1965. None of their original programming prepared them for guerrilla-style warfare and all of them where eventually defeated and went missing until 1973. After their failure in Vietnam, the automatons were effectively given a permanent reprieve from their lives as soldiers, were repaired, and able to go back to their original purpose as musicians. This included taking away their weapons, and downloading a vow of Peace. Though, a recent malfunction has proven that their time in war has certainly left its mark on them.
It wasn't until 2008 that the most recent Walter heir, Peter A. Walter VI, renamed the band that they became known as "Steam Powered Giraffe".
Character Personality:
The Spine is the most responsible of the automatons and acts as the groups older brother, despite not actually being the oldest. Oftentimes he is the buffer between the other automatons and their human workers, helping them keep the others in line. He's very much a straight-n-narrow, follow the rules sort. So much so that he will harp on the others for not following the guidelines their creators make for them. The Spine ignores any peer pressure from the others, and will either ignore it or force a change of subject in whatever means he can. Along with being the most responsible, he's also the most patient and level-headed, but he does have his limits. When the others push him too far or become too unreasonable he can't resist the urge to knock them back into shape.
The Spine plays the straight man on stage, but he's been known to play pranks from time to time. Not that he would ever admit to it if questioned. And it doesn't stop him from lamenting the rest of the band's weirdness when given the opportunity. His brand of humor is dry, which most audiences and his fellow robots don't find very funny. He normally gets more laughs for shooting down Rabbit's made-up stories than he does with his well-rehearsed jokes.
The Spine keeps up with modern-day bands and singers, and sometimes sings along with them whilst imagining his own music videos. This is most interesting because it shows that their 'brains' are closer to human than other bots, just because of their imaginations and creative nature.
The silver man is always polite and truthful, and a good "person" to count on when needed. Out of all of the automatons, the Spine tries to fit in with the humans the most. Perhaps it was from his upgrade in 1955 that gave him an even more human-like appearance, but ever since he's always had a small curiosity of what it would be like. This is reflected in more than a few of the band's songs. When he's not mingling with the organic guests in the Manor or on stage, The Spine spends his time in the Hall of Wires interfacing with the Walter's computer network.
The Spine is not fond of violence. Even with his history of military service he prefers the peacefulness of the stage and the Walter manor. He downloaded a vow of peace after the Vietnam War and refuses to use what weapons he may still posses. Though, he has been known to slap his robot brothers around when he's pushed past his patience.
Despite what the wars may have done to him, The Spine looks at the present and is not one to dwell too much on the past. It also helps that many of this memory files of the event were filed away by the Walter Manor's main computer. He even has curiosities about love, though he feels he could never truly understand it because he cannot 'feel' as humans do.
Powers and Abilities:
As a musician, The Spine can play the guitar, bass, piano, and mandolin. He has a rather impressive vocal range that is featured on many of the band's songs and will often times go from a bass to a falsetto and back again in the same verse.
The Spine is quite the solid automaton, being made from titanium and is much heavier than he looks. He is not immune to anything specific. One unique feature The Spine has is his ability to remove his head (with spine attached). Normally he only does this when he is in the Walter Manor's 'Hall of Wires' to connect with the house's mainframe. Despite the Blue Matter crystals in his 'brain', The Spine still runs off of steam power and needs semi-regular maintenance to keep his screws tightened and joints oiled.
Considering Rabbit still has his flame-thrower (which just so happens to be located in his throat), it's possible that the Spine may still have some of his old war-machine parts as well. In his war days, the Spine had a large chain saw for one arm and a electric ray gun of some sorts for the other. But, with his arms now looking very humanoid, we can only guess that his weapons were removed.
Speaking of the war, it's obvious that the 'bots all suffer from their time in service. This is most evident when the wrong file is rebooted in their system and they go into a sort of PTSD type of malfunction. This would be alright if it didn't involve the possibility of the living things around them to possibly become incinerated. This event has only been documented as happening once, where it was avoided. But if someone were to tinker with The Spine, it's possibly the wrong file could be uploaded (or un-zipped).
Samples
Network:
[A deep almost hollow-sounding voice projects from the communicator.]
Rabbit? Hatchworth? ...Qwerty? What did I tell you all about being stupid?
[A pause.] ... Hm.
Well, this sure doesn't look much like the Walter manor. So allow me begin again, first impressions are everything to you humans after all. [He clears his throat]
Hello! I'm The Spine, and if any of you folks out there could tell me where I am, I'd gladly thank you. If you've seen or heard from any of the 'bots I mentioned before, it would be helpful if you'd point me their way. Well.. any of them except Qwerty...
[The feed ends]
Third Person:
The Spine was getting mighty tired of his brothers' behavior. It was the second time he suspected them to be outside of the manor in the same week. Leaving without some sort of chaperone was strictly forbidden by the Walters, and for good reason. Even in this day-and-age the public didn't take kindly to strange metal people walking around the streets, or peering at them at the local McDonald's wearing a fake mustache for that matter. "Damn Rabbit, I knew you'd be a terrible role model. Hm.. I wonder how the Walters never notice when they leave...?"
As he walked down the hall to a tall door with the anagram "H.O.W" above it, The Spine was ready to enjoy this unexpected free time as best he could. Not tailing after Rabbit and Hatchworth all evening might actually do him some good, if he could get over worrying either would 'accidentally' set something on fire. Not that that was something he ever stopped worrying about. As he entered the Hall of Wires, instead of happening upon what he expected, he found his shiny black guitar leaning against one of the manors circuit boards.
The automaton crossed the room and picked up the guitar with practiced ease. It was always comforting to be around something musical, it was what he was originally created for after all. Silver fingers strummed a scale as he tuned the strings to the perfect pitch. His programming made it so easy, he could tell exactly what he needed to do to make the most pleasant sound. It was always a pleasant experience to perform, but he also liked these small moments he could be creative away from the crowds. It slowly erased what memories he still retained from the war, even though most files were taken out of his memory, some things could never be forgotten completely.
Guitar chords reverberated off the tall ceiling full of wires as The Spine began to sing a recent tune he'd heard on the radio. It was a silly pop song, but without anyone around, The Spine felt free to dance around the room. Without the cares he had earlier, it was easy to let go for once and he wasted no time in feeling ashamed about it. And even if anyone had found him, he would just deny it ever happened later. There were a few good perks to being the only trustworthy 'bot out of the bunch, and he used it as much as he could. As the song ended with a smile firmly stretched across his metal face, he slung the guitar over his shoulder and walked back out of the Hall of Wires. "I wonder if I have time for another song.. That Rihanna tune sure is catchy."
Name: Blu
Age: 26
Personal Journal: DW: Blu667 , LJ: BluFireDragon67
AIM: BluFireDragon667
Plurk: Blu667
Current Character(s): None
Character Information
Character Name: The Spine (Walter)
Fandom: Steam Powered Giraffe
Age: 116
Appearance: The Spine is a tall, slender Futurism styled automaton with silver skin and glowing green eyes. He stands 6 feet, 3 inches high and is the most human-looking of his fellow automatons. He dresses well and is always seen in black with red accents, not to mention his iconic black fedora. Character History:
Peter A. Walter began creating his automatons in order to woo a fellow Cavalcadium scientist by the name of Delilah Moreau. His first failed attempt to woo her was with a 136-foot steam powered giraffe; a direct retaliation of his competitor, Thadeus Becile's, copper elephant. But, with it marked his invention of blue-matter which was then used in all of Walter's automatons. A little birdy had told him of her love for music, and what better to sing her sweet melodies than a band of artificial intelligence. Walter immediately began creating a robotic band that would sing and write their own music. In his efforts, however, he did not notice that his beloved was ill and died a short time after.
In his grief, Walter threw himself into his work, experimenting with the blue-matter. Eventually one of his late-night experiments opened a rift to another dimension inside the manor, and with it, brought new seemingly organic life to his automatons. Their humanoid intelligence and mannerisms quickly became legend, and Walter a renewed success.
In 1896, The Spine was created with the rest of his robot brothers and sisters; The Jon, Rabbit, Malfunction, and Hatchworth. His original make up gave him a spinal column made of locomotive-styled smokestacks and thus gave him his name.
Thadeus Becile was not to be outdone, however, and launched his army of elephants on an attack of a green rock candy mine in Africa in order to obtain more Green Matter for his own creations. After much begging and coercing from several sources, Walter outfitted his singing robots with any weapons he could get his hands on. Along with the new death-dealing weapons, he reluctantly gave them the knowledge to use them. The war against Becile's copper elephants lasted for three days, with Walter's automatons the victors.
With Becile in prison and his creations safely in pieces, Walter spent the rest of his life attempting to make his automatons forget about the atrocities of the war. Their first performance was in San Diego, California at the First World's Fair in 1915, where they performed under the name of "P. A. Walter's Steam Man Band". They continued to play for delighting audiences until their country called for them again.
After Peter Walter the 1st died, Walters after him had made deals with the American Government to draft the automatons in their wars to help fund the family's diminishing fortune. Due to this, they were involved in World War I, II, and the war of Vietnam.
The Spine's first upgrade was in 1955, when the United States government spent millions of dollars outfitting him with highly classified weapons and the titanium alloy spinal column he still has today. Along with his hardware upgrades The Spine was also reprogrammed and redesigned to be more human. With it being more difficult to pick him out from the rest of the flesh-and-blood troops, he could better perform the special ops missions he was now programed to do. It also saved countless lives.
The upgrades served him well until the automatons were deployed to Vietnam in 1965. None of their original programming prepared them for guerrilla-style warfare and all of them where eventually defeated and went missing until 1973. After their failure in Vietnam, the automatons were effectively given a permanent reprieve from their lives as soldiers, were repaired, and able to go back to their original purpose as musicians. This included taking away their weapons, and downloading a vow of Peace. Though, a recent malfunction has proven that their time in war has certainly left its mark on them.
It wasn't until 2008 that the most recent Walter heir, Peter A. Walter VI, renamed the band that they became known as "Steam Powered Giraffe".
Character Personality:
The Spine is the most responsible of the automatons and acts as the groups older brother, despite not actually being the oldest. Oftentimes he is the buffer between the other automatons and their human workers, helping them keep the others in line. He's very much a straight-n-narrow, follow the rules sort. So much so that he will harp on the others for not following the guidelines their creators make for them. The Spine ignores any peer pressure from the others, and will either ignore it or force a change of subject in whatever means he can. Along with being the most responsible, he's also the most patient and level-headed, but he does have his limits. When the others push him too far or become too unreasonable he can't resist the urge to knock them back into shape.
The Spine plays the straight man on stage, but he's been known to play pranks from time to time. Not that he would ever admit to it if questioned. And it doesn't stop him from lamenting the rest of the band's weirdness when given the opportunity. His brand of humor is dry, which most audiences and his fellow robots don't find very funny. He normally gets more laughs for shooting down Rabbit's made-up stories than he does with his well-rehearsed jokes.
The Spine keeps up with modern-day bands and singers, and sometimes sings along with them whilst imagining his own music videos. This is most interesting because it shows that their 'brains' are closer to human than other bots, just because of their imaginations and creative nature.
The silver man is always polite and truthful, and a good "person" to count on when needed. Out of all of the automatons, the Spine tries to fit in with the humans the most. Perhaps it was from his upgrade in 1955 that gave him an even more human-like appearance, but ever since he's always had a small curiosity of what it would be like. This is reflected in more than a few of the band's songs. When he's not mingling with the organic guests in the Manor or on stage, The Spine spends his time in the Hall of Wires interfacing with the Walter's computer network.
The Spine is not fond of violence. Even with his history of military service he prefers the peacefulness of the stage and the Walter manor. He downloaded a vow of peace after the Vietnam War and refuses to use what weapons he may still posses. Though, he has been known to slap his robot brothers around when he's pushed past his patience.
Despite what the wars may have done to him, The Spine looks at the present and is not one to dwell too much on the past. It also helps that many of this memory files of the event were filed away by the Walter Manor's main computer. He even has curiosities about love, though he feels he could never truly understand it because he cannot 'feel' as humans do.
Powers and Abilities:
As a musician, The Spine can play the guitar, bass, piano, and mandolin. He has a rather impressive vocal range that is featured on many of the band's songs and will often times go from a bass to a falsetto and back again in the same verse.
The Spine is quite the solid automaton, being made from titanium and is much heavier than he looks. He is not immune to anything specific. One unique feature The Spine has is his ability to remove his head (with spine attached). Normally he only does this when he is in the Walter Manor's 'Hall of Wires' to connect with the house's mainframe. Despite the Blue Matter crystals in his 'brain', The Spine still runs off of steam power and needs semi-regular maintenance to keep his screws tightened and joints oiled.
Considering Rabbit still has his flame-thrower (which just so happens to be located in his throat), it's possible that the Spine may still have some of his old war-machine parts as well. In his war days, the Spine had a large chain saw for one arm and a electric ray gun of some sorts for the other. But, with his arms now looking very humanoid, we can only guess that his weapons were removed.
Speaking of the war, it's obvious that the 'bots all suffer from their time in service. This is most evident when the wrong file is rebooted in their system and they go into a sort of PTSD type of malfunction. This would be alright if it didn't involve the possibility of the living things around them to possibly become incinerated. This event has only been documented as happening once, where it was avoided. But if someone were to tinker with The Spine, it's possibly the wrong file could be uploaded (or un-zipped).
Samples
Network:
[A deep almost hollow-sounding voice projects from the communicator.]
Rabbit? Hatchworth? ...Qwerty? What did I tell you all about being stupid?
[A pause.] ... Hm.
Well, this sure doesn't look much like the Walter manor. So allow me begin again, first impressions are everything to you humans after all. [He clears his throat]
Hello! I'm The Spine, and if any of you folks out there could tell me where I am, I'd gladly thank you. If you've seen or heard from any of the 'bots I mentioned before, it would be helpful if you'd point me their way. Well.. any of them except Qwerty...
[The feed ends]
Third Person:
The Spine was getting mighty tired of his brothers' behavior. It was the second time he suspected them to be outside of the manor in the same week. Leaving without some sort of chaperone was strictly forbidden by the Walters, and for good reason. Even in this day-and-age the public didn't take kindly to strange metal people walking around the streets, or peering at them at the local McDonald's wearing a fake mustache for that matter. "Damn Rabbit, I knew you'd be a terrible role model. Hm.. I wonder how the Walters never notice when they leave...?"
As he walked down the hall to a tall door with the anagram "H.O.W" above it, The Spine was ready to enjoy this unexpected free time as best he could. Not tailing after Rabbit and Hatchworth all evening might actually do him some good, if he could get over worrying either would 'accidentally' set something on fire. Not that that was something he ever stopped worrying about. As he entered the Hall of Wires, instead of happening upon what he expected, he found his shiny black guitar leaning against one of the manors circuit boards.
The automaton crossed the room and picked up the guitar with practiced ease. It was always comforting to be around something musical, it was what he was originally created for after all. Silver fingers strummed a scale as he tuned the strings to the perfect pitch. His programming made it so easy, he could tell exactly what he needed to do to make the most pleasant sound. It was always a pleasant experience to perform, but he also liked these small moments he could be creative away from the crowds. It slowly erased what memories he still retained from the war, even though most files were taken out of his memory, some things could never be forgotten completely.
Guitar chords reverberated off the tall ceiling full of wires as The Spine began to sing a recent tune he'd heard on the radio. It was a silly pop song, but without anyone around, The Spine felt free to dance around the room. Without the cares he had earlier, it was easy to let go for once and he wasted no time in feeling ashamed about it. And even if anyone had found him, he would just deny it ever happened later. There were a few good perks to being the only trustworthy 'bot out of the bunch, and he used it as much as he could. As the song ended with a smile firmly stretched across his metal face, he slung the guitar over his shoulder and walked back out of the Hall of Wires. "I wonder if I have time for another song.. That Rihanna tune sure is catchy."
